Ferrari Reaching For $12.4B Valuation for IPO

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

The supercar maker may be valued at more than $12.4 billion ahead of its initial public offering, which could happen as early as Friday, Bloomberg (via Automotive News) reported.

Ferrari may price its shares Friday night when it offers 10 percent of the Maranello-based automaker to the public. The remaining ownership of the carmaker will remain largely with the same ownership group, comprised mostly of the Agnelli family and Piero Lardi Ferrari.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne said in July that Ferrari would be worth roughly $11 billion, which analysts balked at being a little ambitious. Since then, Ferrari’s value may have climbed as Marchionne told investors that Ferrari wasn’t necessarily an automaker, but rather a luxury brand that could be more profitable than a traditional carmaker.

FCA stock rose early Friday partly on the news that Ferrari’s IPO could go better than expected. Buying cooled later in the day as investors wait to see what the United Auto Workers union does with the newly proposed contract with the company.

Ferrari’s public sale is part of a cash-raising effort from Marchionne to invest more money into FCA. Spinning off Ferrari could help FCA raise $5 billion needed for investments in its other cars. Or perhaps a hostile takeover of General Motors.


Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • Threeer Threeer on Oct 09, 2015

    Oh, for the days of a cleanly-styled 308...sigh. Ferrari...the Dallas Cowboys of the automotive world.

  • JD23 JD23 on Oct 09, 2015

    "Marchionne told investors that Ferrari wasn’t necessarily an automaker, but rather a luxury brand that could be more profitable than a traditional carmaker." Sounds just like Cadillac.

    • Ect Ect on Oct 11, 2015

      Except that in Ferrari's case it's true

  • Von Von on Oct 09, 2015

    If it were a luxury brand with higher profit margins, those would show up very clearly in the financial statements. Subjectively justifying it is just the tactic of a used car salesman who doesn't understand that their customers know more about cars than they do.

  • Driver7 Driver7 on Oct 10, 2015

    The headlights and front vents on the 458 are like a punk nose ring on a beautiful woman's face. Otherwise, the 458 is an elegant design. After a run of astonishing cars in the 1960s and '70s -- including the 400 Superamerica, 275 GTB, and the Dino 246GT -- Ferrari design slumped, producing cars that looked like they'd been slashed by Wolverine (i.e., the Testarossa, the Mondial 8, and 348 GTS) or penned by Giorgetto Giugiaro on a bad day (the 512 BB). Ferrari's designs have improved since, starting with the no-nonsense F40, and the F355 GTS (which, regrettably evokes the 1989 W40 Toyota MR-2 -- but it's a considerable improvement over many Ferraris of the '70s and '80s). Judge for yourself on Ferrari's Past Models pages -- starting here: http://auto.ferrari.com/en_EN/sports-cars-models/all-past-model/#decade-1950

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